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It’s about teaching and leading by example. It’s about reaching out. It’s about doing what matters. It’s about living up to your capacity. Watching the video below will inspire you to do all of this and more. And it may be the best ten minutes of your day. It’s about love.

Just imagine being at this table with people who have arrived from all over the place, many of whom you don’t know. The odds are that whoever you end up sitting next to will have the same dreams and concerns that you do: for loved ones to be healthy and safe; for pure water to drink, clean air to breathe and good food to eat; and for freedom to give everyone opportunities to thrive…

This says it all about the value of trust, the limitations of fear, the joys of shared wealth, and the importance of community. Fear causes decay. Trust brings growth. Please, come sit, and welcome your neighbor to the table.

Employees want what you want: to be treated kindly, to be given opportunities to flourish, to feel appreciated, to be connected to something that matters, to be happy and have some fun at work, and to be part of a culture that enables rather than limits excellence. Like all of us on personal and community levels, workers want to know that their hearts are safe.

Gone are the days when fear- and ego-driven work cultures were the most productive. Fear perpetuates and intensifies decay. Trust encourages and enables growth. Knowing this, why not strive to build the brightest business culture possible? Here are five easy ways to do this:

Use your ears, then your mind, then your voice. I serve as a consultant to some of the most successful entrepreneurs on earth, including Fortune 500 billionaires. While there are several common traits these folks have, one stands out: they listen. Intently. The want to know what is working and what is not. They then synthesize this information, sometimes on the spot and sometimes later. After this, they share their thoughts, hoping to hear more feedback before crafting a final solution or change. In other words, once they absorb the information that their employees, advisors, friends—whomever—have shared, they process it and then give themselves opportunities to listen some more, as they ask for feedback on what they have come up with by processing the first round of information. Bottom line: Using your ears never hurt anyone.

Pay compliments when thoughts of gratitude cross your mind. Every time. The idea that a positive thought is not expressed to the person or people you have it about is almost preposterous to me. When was the last time someone you praised felt crappy because you did that?!? With today’s instantaneous communication options, it is easy to say the positive things you are thinking. And, if you are “too busy” to do it on the spot, then send a pre-fabricated text or email that says to the recipient: “Remind me to share the great thought I just had about you.” Think about how even that message will positively impact whoever gets it. Then, when you have more time, express why you are grateful. And, here is the kicker: it is impossible to be negative and grateful at the same time. So, as you express your appreciation, your mood is elevated too. Bottom line: Saying nice things helps everyone feel and do better.

Provide good news sources to your employees. You know what harms the heart and dents morale? Listening to or reading the news from traditional media. Why do we support information sources that validate the credo “No news is good news.”? There are so many great, positive news sources that reflect the good in humans, which buoys people rather than crush them. Check out websites like www.goodnewsnetwork.org. Buy subscriptions for your employees. It is possible to change how we view the world, to shift from fear to trust, simply by changing what we choose to see or hear. If we feel more positive about the world around us, we want to support others rather than shirk from them. Bottom line: Good news lifts spirits.

Schedule regular employee events that have nothing to do with work. Want to create camaraderie among your staff? Want to build a team dedicated to a common cause? Want everyone at your workplace to focus on doing right by their employer? Then give folks a chance to escape, together, from work at work. This does not have to be a company picnic or softball team. It can be much simpler and effective than that:

Gather everyone to watch a funny or touching video on YouTube;

Sit down in a group room and listen to 20 minutes of great new music while drinking smoothies;

Round folks up for a quick game of domino falling. Split up into teams to see which group can create the best fall trick;

Invite everyone to close their eyes with their feet up on their desks for a few minutes, either playing their favorite music on headphones or just enjoying peace and quiet, while you silently pass out different gift cards. After the feet-up session they need to give away a card twice to different people before getting one that they get to keep;

Put very obtuse caricature drawings you had done of each person in a funny outfit around the place and then you ask people to move around to guess who is who.

The intent here is to create events that bring people together without focusing on business or bringing people together. Bottom line: Unintentional gatherings create synergy when it is needed. .

Always put your heart into business decisions and relationships. In other words, in all things entrepreneurial never put your heart on the shelf. For that matter, when would this ever be acceptable? The phrase “just business” should only mean “fair, equitable, and ethical” and never “discount what you know is right in order to gain financially”. By keeping your heart engaged you engender trust among those around you. When your employees see that others’ best interests are incorporated into your behavior, they will consciously and subconsciously grow in trust and away from any concerns they may have stored up from previous employers who did not understand the consequences of ego- or fear-based work environments. Bottom line: Leading with your heart helps others flourish.

Be the good. Lead a fulfilling life, one that is “full filling” to you and those around you. This way, when your time comes, you will not regret not having done what you longed to do. Rather, you will reflect on all the beauty, joy, and kindness you experienced, shared and grew.

To remind you of this, I encourage you to watch this video that I envisioned and created with the help of the humbly magnificent Samantha Nienow of Red Zest Design. Please watch it with headphones or earbuds if you can.

This video shows that we are more ALIKE than we might think. With this the case, then why are we accepting leadership that further separates us? I scratch my brain to find good reasons to support someone who feeds off and fuels distrust, who sells himself at OUR expense, who doesn’t cultivate the idea of US. Watch it full screen if you can.

There were 35 of us: nine families with a total of 19 kids, from 20 years old down to nine, living in three vacation homes for a week in Costa Rica. This was our third annual trip with multiple families coming together in an adventurous place. Each year this great group of friends gets a little bigger. First, twenty of us hung out on the North Shore of Oahu, then two dozen rafted Oregon’s Wild and Scenic Rogue River, and now we played in rainforests and on beaches, in the place of “pura vida.”

On day three of our vacation we piled into two mini-buses and headed into the rainforest hills, to spend hours zip lining, rappelling down towering waterfalls, and “monkey dropping” into idyllic pools, all in the canopy of towering Coconut, Ceiba and Gumbo Limbo trees, some of which reach over 150 feet tall. After a thorough safety presentation at the remote Quepo Canyoning headquarters—a talk that gave us an appropriate scare and respect for what lay ahead—we geared up with climbing harnesses, carabiners, figure-eight belay hardware, and helmets. We climbed aboard jeeps and four-wheel drive trucks and motored on rutted rollercoaster roads deep into the wilderness. At a river’s edge we hopped out of the rigs and waded across. Our Costa Rican—“Ticos” as they call themselves—guides led us into the woods as we nervously snaked up slippery steep slopes to the base of a huge tree with a zip line platform overhead.

The first to climb up the rickety twenty-foot ladder to the five-foot wide deck cabled to a Ceiba tree 120 feet above the forest floor was the smallest among us, my intrepid nine-year old daughter, Delaney. At four-foot zero-inches and 55 pounds, “Laney” is a munchkin of epic proportions. When she was three she slammed her fingers in the car door, clean shut, without my realizing it. As I stepped out of the car she quietly said, “Daddy, my hand is stuck in the door.” I quickly opened it and saw that she had creased her fingers to the point where most kids would have shrieked in pain. She didn’t draw a tear. I was again reminded of her toughness 15 minutes after getting home from this Costa Rica trip. Before even walking in the front door, this perpetual gymnast did a few flips on her treasured trampoline and then walked barefoot across the lawn towards our porch. “Dad,” she said. “I think I stepped on a bee.” Sure enough, she had. After a few minutes of ice on her arch she headed back to the trampoline.

Now, she was getting “binered” on to the zip line cable and given a thorough “how to” by one of our guides, my wife and I and others drop-jawed at the height and distance of the run and her pioneering spirit. We cheered her on as she inched to the edge of the planks. She stepped off in to space and slid at the speed of fun around and through tree branches with leaves as big as she.

After a several eternal seconds she was grabbed on the other end of the line by another guide, and stood up on the distant platform. We all hooped and hollered and followed her on this and another and another ride. How could we not? Who among us would not match her will, borne of single digit years of life experience?

This day of adventure and the entire week—filled with body surfing, scuba diving and snorkeling, hiking in torrential rain, and more—provided everyone on this vacation with opportunities to face fears and move forward. Most found the 100-foot rappel down a thoroughly soaking rainy-season waterfall the scariest. To say that the cataract’s spray got in our eyes would be an understatement; the water was so powerful and frightening that it got under our skin.

After the zip line, waterfall, and rappel day I asked Laney which activity had made her the most nervous. Her answer was the same as mine; walking across the v-shaped cable bridge suspended over a deep canyon with only a ½ inch wide wire underfoot and two thin lines at shoulder height to help us balance. I have long been afraid of heights (maybe that is why an ex-girlfriend who loved to rock climb left me for her climbing instructor!). I was able to inch my way across the thing by focusing on the other side without looking down, my heart climbing in my throat with each sloth-like step. Laney said she got scared about half way across the 100-foot span. I asked her how she managed to keep going. “I was really afraid and almost stopped,” she said. “But then I just starting singing a song to myself, and I made it to the other side.”

Many mornings on this trip, before others awoke, I would head up to the open air palapa at our rental house, lie down in the hammock, marvel at the Pacific below and birds and monkeys around, and read. The sound of the ocean rolling in and the toucans greeting the day sometimes lulled me back to sleep. I would read a few pages and peacefully drift off and then come back to life and read some more. The new book that I serendipitously brought—The Space Within—was written by a friend of mine, Michael Neill.

I was Michael’s liaison and advisor for his TED talk, where he shared one of my all-time favorite quotes: “You are never more than one thought away from a whole new experience of being alive.” Since I first heard those words I have tried, but often failed, to live by this credo. In Costa Rica, I read his new masterpiece filled with insights into how thoughts control our actions and emotions. I took to heart his lessons on how I can be and do more for me, those around me, and the universe we each create and call home. One of the ideas he conveyed in The Space Within that I applied on this trip helped me realize “a whole new experience of being alive” on this vacation, and to this day. That idea was to consider one simple sentence when I cower, am overly concerned or harsh, or may be limiting myself or others by overthinking: “I don’t have to think that.”

It was the morning of the zip line day that I first read that line in Michael’s book. When Delaney explained to me that evening that she just started singing, I realized where her zest for life comes from: when she has thoughts that frighten her, make her mad or sad, or keep her from fully experiencing life, she chooses not “to think that.” When she was too scared to take another step she recognized that she did not have to think that she was petrified. She changed her emotions by thinking of and singing a song. My favorite quote of Laney’s is “Happy makes me happy.” With this as her underlying approach to life it is easy to see how this old-soul youngster changes her thoughts to make life better.

Delaney’s mom, Danielle, used to love the ocean and big adventure until she almost died in Costa Rica 20 years ago. After living together in bush Alaska for two years, where I taught at a K-12 school with only 90 students and she finished her Master’s thesis, she pursued a lifelong dream and joined the Peace Corps. She had been in Costa Rica for a month, training for her assignment in Panama, when she and two new Peace Corps friends from the Midwest decided to enjoy a rare day off. They took a bus from the bustle of San Jose, the capitol city, to Jaco, a west coast beach town. She dropped her towel on the sand and ran into the water, the former Huntington Beach, Southern California kid seeking a rebaptism of ocean water.

In an instant, Danielle was swept 200 yards out to sea in one of the notorious Central American rip tides. She treaded water as the shore faded away, dove deep every time another and another and another five-foot wave crashed down on her, and felt the presence of her father who died when she was only seven years old. Between the swells that swallowed her, she frantically waved and screamed at her month-long friends who were sunning on the beach and thought she was just being a kid in the waves again, not hearing her pleas over the water’s roar. She swam in and out and sideways for thirty minutes, cried in fear of never again seeing her mom, brother, and me, kept coming back to the surface by believing she could fight through one more dunk, one more dunk, one more dunk. She finally kicked and clawed herself ashore with the help of locals who dragged her out of the ocean. One week after she saved herself eight tourists died at the same beach from those same rip tides. Today, lifeguards sit watch over these waters.

Danielle is a magnificent mom. From Dawson, our 12-year old son who kayaks wild rivers and first flew a plane at ten years old as part of his pilot’s license lessons, to Dari, who is learning how to jump big horses over increasingly higher fences as a nine-year old equestrian, and to Dari’s twin sister, Delaney, our kids and I are blessed to have her. Danielle has also put up with me and my “idiosyncrasies” (that’s a fancy word for “smart mouth and pain in the ass behaviors”) for decades. With my witness to a few potentially fatal accidents on wilderness expeditions and her near-death experience, we tend to be overly cautious at times with our kids. But we let them try to do adventurous things as much as our etched-in memories allow.

The bravest among us on this trip was not Delaney or another youngster, or the forty and fifty-something year-old friends, who ranged from shivering scared (I am speaking for myself here) to super excited. It was Danielle. I saw something in her that I first fell in love with, that she understandably had closeted away for a while; her free and adventurous spirit. In Costa Rica, again, she quieted her thoughts and faced her fears by screaming across zip lines, watching her kids getting gentle-cycle washing machined in tropical waves, and yes, plunging head first into ocean waters that once stripped bare her soul.

“Pura vida” directly translated means “pure life.” But the direct translation does not convey the heart of the phrase as felt by Ticos. The smile on their faces and the light in their eyes as they say these words express how peaceful, grateful and content they are, and how they want you to be the same, moment after moment, in their rapturous country. Costa Rica is a place aplenty of food, sunshine, fun, nature, and great company. It is a country where thinking too much can get in your way. It is where Ticos and tourists find themselves in beautiful feelings, in what Michael Neill calls “the white space between thoughts.” On this trip, the scars of the past unblemished and were replaced with here and now existence. Bliss advanced as thoughts receded, allowing Danielle’s memories to rest and her pura vida heart to shine through.

Up high in the hammock on the eve of our return trip home, I reflected on Delaney’s wisdom, Danielle’s emergence, and the pattern and challenges of my thoughts on this trip, and beyond. Even though I once led dozens of people at a time down rivers and up mountains, I struggled with opening up in this large group, believing that what I had to say didn’t much matter with all of the ideas and plans presented by others. I grew impatient with Danielle’s fretting over little things like how to split the cost of dinner with all of us diners or it being unsafe for our kids to walk along the road through town. With a lifetime of experience handling logistics for international adventure expeditions, I got frustrated with good friends who over-planned walks along the beach from our oceanfront vacation homes. There is more than a little irony there: I thought way too much about companions who thought way too much.

But by grace and the lessons I learned from a great author, a wife who washed away worries, and a mighty mite who simply started singing, during this vacation I often changed my experience of being alive by not thinking limiting things. Instead I marveled at the beauty of 35 beautiful people who collectively and individually found joy—and peace of mind—in a wild place.

This year, the commercial real estate brokerage company I own will facilitate over $100,000,000 in transactions, for clients worth billions. Before creating and building this company, for nearly two decades I owned and operated an international rafting and adventure travel business, running trips from Bolivia to Baja and Norway to the Pacific Northwest. Most people see these industries as very different in terms of focus (money versus lifestyle), employees (white collar versus no collar), and culture (stiff versus loose). I was one of those people. As a broker rather than a guide, I at one point viewed myself as a pursuer of things shallow and selfish rather than a provider of inspiring and life-changing events.

I felt empty and drove myself nuts in the early years of brokerage. I had left an industry that I adored, believing that my young family needed more financial stability and material comfort to thrive. Guiding rafts did not meet my idea of what a father should be doing. I let go of a job that matched my entrepreneurial DNA and moved into one that felt ignoble and misguided in its singular pursuit.

There are not many jobs like owning a rafting company, where virtually every moment is heart driven. You are part of a community regularly reminded by your “uniform” of how precious each day is: we wore life jackets to work. It was easy to wake up each morning with passion and purpose as I provided guides and clients alike with trips that lifted spirits and unveiled goodness in each other, the result of having fun and tackling exciting challenges in beautiful places. Our whitewater trips helped grow local economies, empowered people to work as a team, left clients in awe, and spurred guests to create a life that really meant something to them and to the rest of the world. In my years as a guide and outfitter, I can’t tell you how many times I heard, and told myself, “You are so lucky to be able to do this.”

No one has uttered that phrase to me as the owner of one of the most successful brokerage firms in the Northwest. The thought did not cross my own mind for years, either, as I grew weary of colleagues and clients who would put their heart on the shelf during negotiations. For some reason, it was acceptable in our business to wall off interpersonal traits that I know we each have. For some reason, kindness and consideration—that are apparent in other aspects of lives, as evidenced by how we compassionately raise our kids and fairly treat our friends—did not apply here. I did not understand or accept this disconnection but sometimes even found myself rationalizing my own ego- or profit-driven behaviors. At times it broke my heart. Professionally, I broke my own heart. But, I discovered a deeper truth in the pain.

After several years of hollow and unfulfilling days, I realized that regardless of the industry any business could be heart directed. It came to me in my car on the side of the road after a nasty “circular” conversation with a broker representing a buyer of my client’s property. My clients were in their 80’s, had run an auto electric shop for many, many years, and were now interested in selling the real estate they owned to operate their business. They were kind and shrewd and never ill willed. After the other broker repeatedly threatened legal action if my clients did not recommit to selling their property, I unraveled. This was a broker who was not interested in what really mattered to two folks well into their retirement. He only wanted the deal to proceed to his client’s benefit. I stopped talking in circles, melted down, and grew resolve. For the last time on my watch decency took a back seat to dollars.

There was no reason to honor industry philosophies and practices if in my gut I knew they weren’t needed or right. As an outfitter I had long helped people feel comfortable, safe, happy, and rewarded in often very challenging and scary situations. I always took their heart and soul into consideration. It dawned on me again—and now permanently—that holding one’s heart was infinitely more important than following an ideal that could spiritually and financially hurt people. I knew as I sat on the side of the road that I would never allow anyone’s heart to be ignored in real estate or any other business I owned, no matter what the transaction.

It was an overnight change. I asked myself and others to use a true gauge, to measure what really mattered. I reminded my employees and partners that there is no reason to replace what you feel in your chest with what you hope for in your wallet. We are each intuitively wired to be compassionate and connected to others. This is what secures our survival. Disregarding this essence happens only when ego-driven pursuits overpower heart-driven motivations. But one person’s gain at another’s loss—financial or spiritual—is not a global net gain. It is a community “wash,” or worse, and never pans out to growth for all. Success is best celebrated with others and there is no such thing as true success if it comes at some expense of another. In my world, “just business,” where disregarding another for the sake of personal gain, is unacceptable.

Our company motto is “Community before commodity.” We live it and we are spreading it. It feels great to change an industry where honest and honorable relationships struggle to form due to egregious focus on material gain. It feels great to bring heart to life.

This year, the commercial real estate brokerage company I own will facilitate over $100,000,000 in transactions, for clients worth billions. Before creating and building this company, for nearly two decades I owned and operated an international rafting and adventure travel business, running trips from Bolivia to Baja and Norway to the Pacific Northwest. Most people see these industries as very different in terms of focus (money versus lifestyle), employees (white collar versus no collar), and culture (stiff versus loose). I was one of those people. As a broker rather than a guide, I at one point viewed myself as a pursuer of things shallow and selfish rather than a provider of inspiring and life-changing events.

I met a guy a couple of years ago who at that point was an active, accomplished, and engaged man. Let’s call him “Greg.” He is still active and engaged and successful and driven, but things have changed a bit since we first met.

If you were to ask Greg, he might humbly tell you he would prefer to not be labeled with words like “accomplished,” words that some consider egotistical. While I have never run this by him, he might like it if I used the word “fertile” to describe him, as in a beautiful field from which good things grow. He would jokingly argue that the male reproductive prowess meaning of the word was more applicable, but that’s just him chest puffing for the ladies.

Greg got sick and is dying. Or, he got sick and keeps on living. You hear stories all the time of people who get the devastating diagnosis and change their life in order to squeeze into their remaining ___________ (fill in the blank with days, weeks, months, years) what they had not done over the previous ___________ (fill in the blank with years, decades, lifetime).

You also hear of folks who may not have lived the most ________ (ethical, moral, giving, compassionate) life. Realizing what matters after the doctor delivers the news, they seek and hopefully find God or gratitude or grace. They change their __________ (conniving, untoward, apathetic, selfish) ways in hope that years or decades of being so can be reversed in what little time is left.

From the stories I hear from him and others, the photos on the walls of his home, the casual mention of this childhood friend who is up visiting or that beautiful grandchild playing outside, the loving banter between he and his wife, and just how he carries himself today, Greg has long filled his days with incredible moments, as a good man. He is ethical, moral, giving and compassionate. Greg has positively impacted those around him in ways too many to count. I don’t think he knows how much he teaches us about doing good and doing right, because he is not a teacher. He is simply a witness and a doer, and we learn from him by listening to what he says, watching what he does, and, remarkably, feeling what he feels. This is possible only because there are no layers on his heart to refract its message.

When one struggles with failing health and is limited by a frayed body it can be difficult to keep a good perspective on life, to continue to bring and feel good cheer. I once spent eight straight months on my back unable to walk more than 100 feet due to a lumbar disc that was crunching spinal nerves. I was constrained, physically and spiritually. I learned empathy but did not laugh or love much. It was a daily battle to be fun or friendly. It was easier to be woeful and despondent. I wondered back then if I had built up more of a good-spirit reservoir from a life more purposefully and compassionately lived before I was hurt, could I have drawn on that during tough times to be more hopeful and nicer.

Greg is giving and lighthearted and kind—and full of life, even as his body is not, now. I believe that his spiritual vitality is intact and shines through because it has been this way his whole life, and his muscle, brain, and soul memory will never forget this. He has built reservoir of remarkably positive attributes that continues to overflow. He has taught me the importance of being generous and honorable, just to be that way, but to also be that way so that it is part of your core—your essence—and cannot be stripped away no matter how tough things get.

This is not to say that Greg is holier than thou. He’d be the first to admit he made some mistakes along the way and that he ain’t no Buddha or Mother Teresa or Dalai Lama (although rumor has it he dressed liked Buddha one Halloween). He once wondered aloud if his condition today is due to too hard living. But what he stands for makes this possible regret relative. We should all heed this: the distance from bad to good is far greater than the distance between good and great. If you perpetually live doing what is right—or very, very close to it— then lament from not always hitting that mark is mostly meaningless.

Being confined to a wheelchair with joints that ache all the time would make it tough—no, nearly impossible—to be lighthearted and to laugh. In addition to his honor and dignity, Greg has maintained his ability to find humor in every situation. I ask myself about myself “Why, with no aches and no diagnosis of dying, can’t I do this as well as he does it?” This question remains unanswered but, as Greg illustrates, maybe I should find something positive within my reach right now, and just enjoy the ________ (company, sunset, ice cold beer, moment).

I have learned so much from Greg in the last two years that I consider him to be a lifelong, good ol’ friend. I have learned from him that while our time here is limited, the impact we have on others and the world is not. Whenever I hear this Sleeping at Last song (and I play this song over and over these days) I realize that it is Greg they are singing about, and I get tears in my eyes. Not just because I am losing my new old friend, but because I am blessed to know him:

“You taught me the courage of stars before you left.
How life carries on endlessly, even after death.
With shortness of breath, you explained the infinite
How rare and beautiful it is to even exist.”

I hope to spend more time with Greg; a lot more time. I want to keep witnessing love personified and be a part of that.

Every once in a while I feel cheated because I have not been friends with him for decades, as countless people have been. But then I remember a conversation with him just yesterday and another a few days ago, in which he unknowingly shared a lifetime of wisdom. I live today knowing that I am and the world is better because of him. I honor his gift by modeling him, by endeavoring to always do what is right. His star helps light my life and always will. And, I am one of the fruits borne of his fertile field. I owe it to him to help make the world as he does: a place where good things happen and where doing right matters.

“It’s the hunger to write a new story that drives them to overcome their limited circumstances,” writes Carmine Gallo in his book, “The Storyteller’s Secret.” As I read this sentence—about how individuals change for the better and achieve greatness in their lives—I realized it had broader implications: It’s the hunger to write a new story that drives us to overcome our limiting circumstances.

“The Storyteller’s Secret” is about people who are making the world a better place through meaningful work and inspiring speeches. These folks have one thing in common: They lead with, come from, and give of their heart. And so do you, when you do. And so do we, when we do.

Meaningful positive change takes root only in the heart. Harmful change is driven by something outside the heart. If you closely examine significant pivot points in your life—when things went from bad to good or good to great—you will find that the shift started in your heart. When closely studied, it is apparent the same thing applies for us as a community, be it a small town, state, country, or world. Simply, positive change starts in hearts.

American independence was not born of the brain. It was hatched from a deep-rooted desire for life free of royal encumbrance. Slavery ultimately was not abolished for economic reasons. It was because we knew in our heart that it was not right to condemn and control others based on skin color; and we now know the same of other injustices such as those wrought by religious or ethnic differences. Women did not earn the right to vote through a series of academic papers that swayed public opinion. It was because a small—then a large—group of people illustrated that fairness emanates from the heart. And laws against abusive child labor practices were put into place and continue to be enforced because we ache when innocent kids are mistreated. These and so many other positive changes illustrate that we instinctively know what is right.

The categorical imperative, an idea posited by 18th century philosopher Immanuel Kant, essentially states that “right” really does not need to be defined. Knowing what is “right” is as much a natural part of us as breathing. This knowing of right comes from our heart, not our head. It is a common and shared understanding that we humans have, and cannot ignore. It can only be shrouded by ego, greed, excluding ideologies, or hate.

Right lives in a narrow center of the spectrum of choices we make, but should always be where we turn to make good decisions. Outside of this narrow band, unconsciousness, fear, dogma, or apathy form culturally and individually harmful pulls. Decisions made outside this center lead to troubling acts. We know this because these actions often require us to irrationally justify or apologize for unjust behavior, individually or as a society. Think the “reservationing” of Native Americans, polluting of Erie Canal, and drugging and incarcerating of mentally ill.

When we examine true right—and its offspring of healthy and helpful actions—we intuitively know it is from the heart. It is our responsibility—and a perpetually beautiful opportunity—to listen to and heed this imperative. It is an obligation to not give attention to deceptive inner voices or those who seek to grow discord by manufacturing things outside the band of right, things powered by ego, greed, or capitalizing on fear.

The merchants of the economics of fear want us to follow them without us listening to our hearts. Let’s not do this anymore. Let’s listen to our hearts in order to end this practice, this administration of angst and anguish. Let’s honor our instinct and disallow a body politic bent on promoting and exploiting fear. History bears out the weakness of these approaches, as evidenced by the end of slavery and abusive child labor practices, and our growing recognition of the right to freedom for all. Over time, those who have bought from the merchants of fear see how much better it is to return their purchases, as these “goods” ultimately limit growth and happiness.

Let’s have trust and kindness and generosity and compassion guide and help us all. Let’s overcome limiting circumstances. Let’s lead with, come from, and give of our hearts. Let’s write a new story.

During the Tiananmen Square uprising in Beijing, China, citizen protestors clashed with their own army. One brave man even stared down a phalanx of tanks, stopping them dead in their tracks. Coincidentally at that time I was in Asia, only a thousand miles but a political world away from the horrors of Tiananmen, where hundreds of hopeful young men and women were killed. As I wandered the streets of Hong Kong early one Sunday morning during this massacre, tai chi groups flowed in unison and through tears in a downtown park, silent freedom fighters marched with a giant papier-mâché Statue of Liberty, and worried young couples pushed their babies in strollers along the waterfront.

Hong Kong, the most densely populated island on earth, is a place of contrast especially given its proximity to China. Towering office complexes and glistening apartment buildings define the skyline. Yet four extended families are likely to live together in a two bedroom apartment. Rolls Royce, Mercedes Benz, and Jaguars roll down boulevards while just across the bay and into China donkeys pull carts along rutted trails. The Hong Kong archipelago is home to some of the world’s wealthiest people and some of its poorest.

I was in Hong Kong for a few days to meet with the manager of the company that was printing our rafting business brochures. I was treated to five-star meals and personalized tours of the city. Factory and office workers hustled at a pell-mell pace to produce and achieve. Children in school uniforms played hop-scotch on asphalt playgrounds. The insane paradox of free-willed citizens living regular lives while people on the other side of a line drawn on a map were being bloodied in a fight to live unoppressed was evident all around. The death of innocents—some of whom were relatives of the people I spent time with—was the worry of the Hong Kong populace.

After spending a long weekend in this shell shocked city, I exited the taxi at the airport for my return flight home. I was politely besieged by locals who asked if I was American. They had a simple request: Could I please take a letter they had written to a loved one in China and mail it from the States? One after another, I was told that a letter from Hong Kong to China during this populist uprising would never make it to the person it was addressed to, as the Chinese security forces destroyed each one. If the letter was mailed from the U.S. there was a chance that their child, mother or father, sister or brother would get it. I took all the letters that time and space allowed. I boarded the plane with dozens of expressions of love tucked safely in my knapsack, saddened at the lengths that many people have to go through to live freely, and awestruck at how much their loved ones wanted to give them their hearts.

A couple of years later my brother, Sam, and I vacationed in Ireland, taking in the rich history of the Emerald Isle. Among a palette of lessons learned was that in the 1600’s Catholic priests were thrown in jail in Ireland for practicing against the faith of the country’s people. For a time Ireland did not like to be told how to live this way. While the Irish still bristle a bit when asked to behave, things are a little different than they were long ago. Catholicism is alive and well in Ireland as it rocks and rolls. The Irish blend godliness and good times with the best of them.

But four-hundred years ago, many of the good and some not-so-good Fathers were banished to Inishbofin Island, a speck of quartz, grit, and granulite seven rough-water miles off the mainland coast of the County Galway. To these priests, this island outpost must have seemed like the last stop on the way to the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, one final chance at life and salvation before a walk on a plank. From inside dark gray cells it didn’t matter much that the rest of the island, all 3.5 miles long and two miles wide, was often covered in snow, rain, or fog. One has to wonder if that is what the holy prisoners felt their insides were covered in, too.

When Sam and I vacationed in Ireland the remains of Inishbofin’s hell-on-earth were largely eroded. Prison wall stubs poked up from sea grass. Beaches played host to gentle tides. Happy townsfolk gathered in the evenings to share stories and songs, always accompanied by a Guinness, guitar, squeeze box, and fiddle. To us, despite its dark history as a ruthless pirate’s hideaway, a naval garrison, and a death sentence for the men of God, Inishbofin sparkled. Its’ jagged black rocks, rolling green hills, fine white sand, bright azure sea, plus the sun on our backs and beers in our bellies—all against Inishbofin’s harsh past—were a brilliant backdrop to discover a culture that deeply knows and humbly admires itself.

For us Americans, whose country was born in 1776 (giving full respect to the Natives who were there long before America became America), it is a mystical treat to grab a sandwich and ale in a tavern built in the 1300s. It is also fun to be-bop down pedestrian-only Grafton Street in Dublin, where countless sidewalk musicians pound out beats for the thousands of Irish and foreign shoppers to enjoy as they explore block after block of stores and people watching. It is breathtaking to take in sunsets along the Connemara Coast, where vistas are exact matches to those you see in those picture perfect Ireland calendars. But it is the nights that reminded us most of how and why Ireland came to be one of the awesomely artistic and culturally-rich countries on earth.

The heritage of Ireland is found on the fiddle strings that are bowed nightly in neighborhood pubs across the country. Its pride is boomed from robust voices singing with pick-up bands in towns north and south. And, its beauty is found in the laughter and smiles of those who gather as their ancestors have for centuries—for a pint and a pat on the back. We ended up in awe at the people of this isle who truly reveled in each other’s company, who honored a culture that time has only enhanced.

The Lofoten Islands, north of the Arctic Circle in Norway, served as another source of adventure inspiration one summer. Running north to south through the land of the midnight sun, the Lofotens are home to a few thousand hardy souls and the most dramatic mountains on earth. Here straight-up escarpments rise thousands of feet from the ocean, with serrated tops that slice into the sky. At their base, fishermen head out to maelstroms at sea, seeking cod and other fish that have sustained their country for generations.

In an effort to find new rivers to run and to take a break from managing a busy rafting company in Norway, I boarded a train near Lillehammer with my friends Leo Durand and Kate Jeremiah for the twenty-hour journey north. Norway is so long that even after a day and a night on the train we were just over half way up the country. To get even further north, we took a ferry to the town of Å (that’s right “Å”, but it’s pronounced “oh”). Even though Å is at the top of the alphabet, it is serenely perched at the bottom of the Lofotens. After grabbing a cup of chowder (deciding against a bowl of alphabet soup) we headed up island and ended up that afternoon in Reine, a fishing village nestled in a harbor at the base of those towering mountains.

We checked into our rorbu, a converted fishing shack with beds, a bathroom, and the most beautiful views imaginable, and laced up our boots. After a short hike up a mountainside to a hidden tarn, we lay our travel-weary bodies down in tufts of Arctic grass. At that moment, a Norwegian Sea breeze began to blow, moving threads of clouds into our line of sight from behind the ridges above us. The wisps literally ran over the mountain tops like a crystal clear stream spilling over rocks. It was as if we were under water looking through it to the sky. The clouds were vapor liquefied, all the while changing color and flow. I remember getting goosebumps as Mother Nature held us in her sway, aweing us with her beauty.

As I traveled on these three unique islands, very different things gave me feelings of awe. I found wonder in the drive for freedom and expressions of compassion. I was struck by a people who share a common past and passion for their countrymen and women. And, I was awed by the glory of nature. There have been countless other times and places where awe pulsed through me, a divine blend of amazement, humility, and love. Most notably was when my children were born. I will never understand the connection I felt the moment they took their first breath and I held them in my arms.

Awe takes your breath away, drops your jaw and gives you goosebumps. Goosebumps have a couple of simple physiologic origins. One is to increase insulation with elevated skin when we are cold—with bumps. Another is to make ourselves look bigger. When we were (and some of us still are) pursued by warring tribes or giant animals that wanted to kill us, we would get goosebumps from facing something larger than ourselves. This was an autonomic nerve response to get hair to stand up on our arms, shoulders, back, head, or wherever, in order to look a little bigger than we were in hopes of scaring the hungry beast. We often banded together at these times, connected by our common fear, respect, and awareness. While this ancient survival mechanism has largely become obsolete, we still react similarly to things way bigger than ourselves. Sometimes this still comes from fear, but mostly it is from incredulousness and reverence that we experience awe.

Awe arises from the need to connect and to honor something much bigger than ourselves. It’s a reminder that we need to pursue a life that extends well beyond our narrow here and now. It is to remember that much in life is beyond explanation. It’s a nudge to stand quietly rapt together, to cherish beauty, the human spirit, and universal love.

As we hiked down from the river of clouds and into a week of more collective amazement on the Lofotens, I was struck by the irony that my deeper understanding of awe as a connector came on three very different islands. Generally, the metaphor of an island evokes thoughts of isolation and solitude. But virtually every one of us experiences awe as we stare at spectacular sunsets, feel blessed by newborns, marvel at majestic mountains, rollick in rooms of laughter, and honor freedom as a birthright. In awe, we are always and forever connected.